We thought we would share this review received from Lori Bentley, who took the Highlands Ability Battery:

I do not fit into the box of “people who should take a psychometric test”. Those, in my opinion, were the managers, consultants, jargon-titled corporate people out there. The men and women in suits, swarming up the corporate ladder. I am an out of the box, creative, artist, designer. Struggling to make money from ideas. Having brainwaves about odd little concepts. Anything from developing an effective advertising campaign to coming up with a concept to solve a display problem for one of my children’s science fair projects. Sometimes it feels as if there are too many people up there in my brain. Funnily enough, the Highland Ability Battery pegged this – It states : “You have a high number of ideas flowing through your head any any one time. You cannot turn this ability off at will”. Yippee! I’m not going crazy after all.

We are innundated with self help gurus advising us to find ourselves, whether it’s a north star, a bliss or a navel gazing meditation. Another person’s perfect way to success and fulfillment is not necessarily going to make sense or work for you, and there are times when I think that the age of the individual that we are living in now, does nothing to help us find our place in the larger arena of a business.

Back to the Highlands Ablility Battery. This not an IQ test, or a right or wrong test. What I find fascinating about it is that it measures that which is inate in all of us. Our abilities, not our skills. Skills change, we build on them or forget them if we don’t use them, but abilities are with us from the beginning. Very often, abilities are things we don’t recognise in ourselves or they are aspects of ourselves that we know, but had not thought of as a defining aspect of our own make-up. For example, one of the aspects of my personality that emerged from the test was that I am not suited to any job that involves repetition. I know that I hate repetition, but having it emerge from a test as one of my driving abilities (which are very powerful and influence every part of our work lives), crystalised a whole lot of things for me. Why I chose painting as a major in art school instead of printmaking (because each painting was a new immediate experience, each brush stroke an individual mark in the whole, while printmaking involved hundereds of impressions of the same image). Why, if I am given a task that involves repetition, I get antsy and unhappy and have to find ways to change the process every 10 minutes or so for fear that I might start screaming and tearing my hair out.

Most of the test confirmed that I am more or less doing what I should be doing – testing high on spatial relations theory and visualisation, design memory, observation, verbal memory, vocabulary means that working with images and words in a creative setting is where I should be. Low number memory means that I am lucky no-one insisted I become an accountant!

What I had not anticipated was how I was going to apply the results of this test. If you are miserable in your chosen career then it is definitely the test to take, however, I like my daily creative challenges, so what was the point? I was headhunted to go and work for a large publishing company as a senior designer. The people were great, the interview went well, the money and benefits were a huge incentive, I even designed a sample page of their publication for them. Unfortunately, my gut feeling was not all fizzy and excited. I was having severe anxiety about accepting this job. I thought maybe I was being wimpy about change and tried to psych myself out of it. I got as far as having a contract in hand, still feeling terrible, when I remembered my little Highland friend, sitting on my computer, probably screaming “READ ME” if it had a voice. So I read it again and suddenly realised that the job I was about to accept was one that would turn me into a gibbering, mouth-frothing, hair-tearing wreck in about two weeks because I would be turning my back on all my key abilities.

Who’d have thought that I would use this test to reject a job offer instead of actively seeking a specific path? Either way, it is an invaulable tool.

Noel Gray from Knoeledge sent us this email and we thought it was worth sharing. There are so many opportunities to communicate with others. We rather like this one.

“We have been doing the networking lunches for some time, so the idea of doing something a bit different appealed. Vandy and I had come across the idea of being active and going for a walk rather than sitting down.

And so yesterday nine of us (plus one lovely dog) turned up at the Green Man in Grantchester. We quickly agreed that there were some lessons to be learnt already – hat, gloves and a torch were likely to be useful! It was a lovely sunny evening, though already it was beginning to get colder.

 Vandy then arrived wearing a rucksack and after a short briefing we were off. Vandy had prepared a set of three questions that we could discuss in small groups, though I think we all found that we had plenty to discuss anyway. We walked at a good pace behind the houses in what seems to a be a pretty little village. We were walking and talking in twos or threes, with people occasionally leaving one group to join another.

There was a moment of confusion when we unexpectedly arrived at a private swimming pool. Once we had retraced our steps we found our route again and walked back alongside the river to the pub. By now there was a great sunset and Vandy took a photo as the last glimmers of light kissed the treetops and we arrived back at the Green Man.

 The walk had taken about an hour. With the light now faded completely the pub was too inviting. We settled down around a large table and continued to network.

All agreed it had been a good evening, and that we should repeat it – in the spring!”

I was having a look through my son’s Guinness World Book of Records book and still find myself astonished by what people will do to get into this hefty book of sometimes astonishing and quite frankly weird records. I can understand people wanting acknowledgement for holding the record at being the fastest runner over 100metres, or being the fastest person to swim the channel. But frankly there are a huge number of records listed that I just can’t imagine anyone actually sat there and thought up the idea of in the first place. Here’s but a mere taster, of what some people will do to make their mark:

• 2510 people in Swansea, dressed up as smurfs in white and blue, complete with blue faces and white hats to break the record for the most people dressed as smurfs in one place
• The tightest circumference of a 30 centimeter (12-inch) aluminum frying pan, rolled with bare hands in 30 seconds is 17.46 centimeters set in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on July 30, 2007.
• Jean-François Vernetti of Switzerland collected 8,888 different ‘Do Not Disturb’ hotel signs from 189 countries across the world since 1985
• The longest distance pulled by a horse while on full-body burn was 472.8 meter (1,551 feet, 2 inches) by Halapi Roland in Kisoroszi, Hungary, Nov. 12, 2008.

I’ve never felt the need to try out any of the above, but this book of records fascinates me. Over 100 million copies,  printed in 40 languages have been sold. According to Guinness, tens of thousands of people who want to set a record apply each year, and 80% of those applications get rejected. So what drives people to want to get their name in this famous book of achievements?

Some people, may view attempting to set a world record as a way to measure themselves. For these people, this will be about understanding where they are positioned in the world, and how they fit in the grand scheme of things. I can however think of easier ways to gain a measured view of myself that doesn’t involve crushing 80 eggs with my head in a minute.

360 degree feedback is a widely used tool in business to measure and define just how well individuals are performing. This type of review gives an all round insight, into a persons strengths and weaknesses as seen by those around them, which enables them to understand their position within the organisation they work for.

So, if you’d like to gain a measured view on how you perform, without having to hurdle 100metres wearing swimming fins on your feet, consider taking part in a 360 degree feedback review.

Christmas in on its way! Now I don’t define the onset of the festive season, by the sale of tinsel in the shops (although scarily enough a certain large clothing store had Christmas cards on sale last Saturday). I know when the festive season is on its way, when my Saturday night entertainment includes the highly entertaining singing talent show that is The X Factor. Yes…it’s back on our screens, and back with a vengeance!

Having been an avid viewer since its conception in 2004, I would’ve anticipated that my interest would’ve waned after 7 series. Indeed had there not been a change in the judging panel this year, I may not have been so inclined to get caught up in Series 8 as I have been. So what’s so different about this year? For me it has to do with the welcome departure of the sharp tongue-lashing judge that was Simon Cowell, people tend to either love him or loathe him. In previous series’, the outspoken Mr Cowell with his set of perfect pearly whites, often appeared unable to give constructive criticism to those unfortunate singing wannabes, who didn’t have the vocal abilities of the likes of Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke (previous contestants with fantastic voices for those of you who have no idea who I’m talking about)

There was little or no praise for those who had tried, and positive advice to those with less than perfect vocal ability was virtually non-existent. Instead the music mogul millionaire preferred to dish out his point of view in the form of  harsh one liners, that would be of no benefit to the person on the receiving end, and would likely end in them breaking down in floods of tears with their dream in shatters.

There are many memorable quotes, but for the point of this blog I think this one gets my point across:

“You sound like a cat in a vacuum cleaner. Dreadful.”

Criticism comes in many formats including logical, factual, negative, constructive, practical and theoretical. Many people tend to think of criticism in a negative vein, it can leaving you feeling that you’re at fault, that the work you produced just wasn’t up to scratch. However, criticism in its purest form is purely the judgment of both the merits and faults of an individual or group. The issue that arises is generally not the criticism itself, but the way in which the feedback is delivered. Case in point – Simon Cowell’s judging technique on The X Factor.

Simon may have been bang on with the comment about the appalling singer sounding like cat in a vacuum cleaner, but there was nothing logical about how he delivered his left hooked virtual punch. If his judged response was that with the vocal abilities the would-be singer had, he/she would be unlikely to obtain a record deal, then with his experience in the music business, the comment would quite possibly be justified. Yes, the criticism may hurt but what he would’ve delivered would have been a logical criticism, delivered in a factual way, based on his knowledge of the industry. However, blatantly comparing the singer to a 4 legged animal of the feline variety, trapped in a Dyson-style contraption on national television, can be perceived as nothing short of a personal attack.

To improve ourselves, feedback is necessary. On an individual level it forces us to look at our own flaws and weaknesses which we might otherwise choose to ignore. Let’s face it; it’s far easier to bury your head in the sand than to acknowledge and work on the parts of us that require change. However, the head in sand syndrome prevents us from improving ourselves. Within an organisation, feedback is equally important, as people’s performance can potentially determine the success or possibly even the failure of a business.

360 degree feedback is one tool that is widely used in business. Step one is the gleaning of the feedback through a 360 review; step two is the delivering of the feedback, and to ensure that everyone involved gets the most out of the process, delivering it constructively is essential.

So, next time you find yourself in the position of having to give out feedback, think about how what you say, may effect the person sitting opposite you. Take a moment to picture Simon Cowell, dressed in a black tightly fitted t-shirt, black high waisted trousers, pearly white teeth gleaming, pulling some poor soul apart with one of his infamous caustic comments – need I say more?

I went to the cinema last night to watch the latest blockbuster ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. Overall it was an entertaining and enjoyable movie and essential to view on the big screen in my opinion, for those thinking about waiting until it comes out on DVD. This movie not only left me wanting a little Caesar chimpanzee of my own(highly irresponsible I know) but it also left me with food for thought on what is possible when a group of individuals(Apes in this case) decide enough really is enough. This was the ultimate in uprising which led to total chaos.

Don’t be fooled though into thinking, that this kind of revolt can only happen when you lock up and mistreat a large number of chimpanzees in a hostile environment, day in and day out. In this precarious economy we find ourselves in, where companies are having to cut costs and yet still boost productivity, not only are employees often having to work longer hours, but frequently this is being done with little or no pay rise. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognise the parallels between the angry chimpanzees portrayed in the movie, and a disgruntled workforce that can be found in many a company worldwide.

According the Wall Street Journal, the Corporate Executive Board has reported that more than 75% of departing employees wouldn’t recommend their employer? Even more frightening is that this figure is almost double what it was 3 years ago. Its not all bad though, as the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work for list proves. Nando’s, the restaurant chain specialising in peri-peri chicken debuted in at the top spot this year with employees raving about the company giving an average score of 80% across the board, with a general consensus that the employees are listened to, irrelevant of which position they held in the company.

Unfortunately, not every company is a Nando’s. There’s no doubt that it’s harder than ever to keep a business afloat in these lean times that we live in. However, a report like this should be a wake up call to any CEO or top level manager to head on back down to the floor and talk to the workforce. If there are any grumblings or ripples of dissent, and you can bet your bottom dollar there will be, hiding behind your desk and sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich isn’t going to keep your company out of that shocking 75% bracket. Too many staff to talk to and not enough spare time to tackle the issues personally? That’s where engagement surveys come in. A well set up survey of this type is designed to provide good honest feedback from your workforce. Listen to what they have to say, and be seen to act on the issues that arise. Being part of that 75% majority, is not a good place to be.

What do you think of if I say the word ‘epidemic’? Do you immediately hold your breath, run for your bottle of multi vitamins and have flashbacks of scenes from the 1995 movie Outbreak? The blockbuster movie starring Dustin Hoffman was about a fictional deadly virus called Motaba. In the movie, the disease, based on the actual deadly virulent virus named Ebola, started in Zaire, and was brought over to the USA by an infected monkey, stowed away on a ship heading for California. The initial symptoms were flu-like, but the condition rapidly deteriorated, killing those infected within 48 hours.

Not all epidemics however, are life threatening or based on deadly airborne viruses. The term ‘epidemic’ can also be used to describe rapid, extensive development, without a festering lesion or hemorrhagic rash in sight. So, surely then in business, an epidemic could be a hugely positive thing.  As a manager, wouldn’t you want to be part of an epidemic of employee motivation for example?  Imagine a contagion of productivity, cost control and trust within your workforce? An epidemic created with a positive slant can have an amazing impact on your business. With the right kind of framework, it can bring about a constructive and optimistic way forward.

Be aware though, in the same way an epidemic can be beneficially contagious and infectious when established in a constructive vein, it can be just as ineffective and destructive if mismanaged and left to run amok. As a manager, the onus is on you to ensure that what may appear to be a little hiccup in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t deteriorate to the point it can’t be managed or contained. Time keeping is a classic example of a situation that starts of as a minor issue, but that has the potential to get out of hand very quickly.

Simon often strolls into the office 10 minutes after the rest of the team in the morning. At least once a week he takes an extended lunch hour without prior agreement, and is generally the first to leave the office before 5pm. His manager John, hasn’t tackled him on this, as he knows that Simon works hard when at work and doesn’t really see it as that much of a problem. However, other members of the team have started to feel frustrated by Simons’ blatant abuse of time keeping, and Johns’ apparent inability to tackle Simon over this. It doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to work out what’s going to happen next. In the blink of an eye, the other team members too, start to turn up late in the morning, extend their lunch hours and generally start to take advantage of the system. In Johns’ eyes, what he saw as a relatively harmless case of one mans’ occasional lack of commitment to his working hours has turned into a full scale problem, with the entire office following suit.

So, if there was a moral to the blog what would it be? Am I suggesting that as a manager with a potential time keeping epidemic on your hands you rush out and buy everyone in the office a watch? No, the point of the piece is that as a manager, you need to nip unacceptable behaviour in the bud before it creeps out and infects your entire office population. If not, you’d better start hunting through the depths of your wardrobe for your anti-virus protective clothing, you may need it.

Every day, we find ourselves up against this somewhat challenging happening. It could be in the format of a £5 note burning a hole in your child’s pocket. You try to explain that instead of wasting it on a load of rubbish, if they save it, and wait for another few weeks they’ll have enough to buy the latest Top 10 CD they’ve been so desperate for. I’ve tried explaining this theory to my daughter, as she buys yet another packet of brightly coloured biro’s and a 5 pack of mini notepads, all items almost certain to be  found shoved under her bed within 48 hours.

Yes I can have a moan at the mini-me that is my wonderful daughter, for her lack of ability to delay gratification in this instance, but who am I to criticize? Having very kindly been given a voucher by a friend last week, I combed Top Shop for at least an hour desperate to spend it. Having tried on numerous outfits, and feeling most despondent that none suited me, and adamant to part with my voucher at the first available opportunity, I settled on a bag. The bag is beautiful, but my point is that I knew I wasn’t leaving the shop until I’d spent the voucher. I just didn’t have it in me to wait a few weeks and see what other stock may come in.

Irrelevant of my obvious lack of ability to delay gratification in this instance, I believe wholeheartedly in the concept. Surely the key to success in life is to pursue what we want most, not necessarily what we want in the here and now. So if we take the fabulous pastime of girlie shopping out of the equation and look at the bigger picture, what do we see?

Delaying gratification is about doing something we know we should do, even if it’s not what we really want to do at that moment. We know that deep down, the benefits of getting whatever it is we need to do, out of the way, will benefit us in the long run and leave us with a clear conscience to pursue other opportunities.

Take the important report that you need to produce for the board of directors that needs to be in on Friday at noon. It’s now Tuesday morning, you know it’s going to take 2 full days to get it completed, but the sun is shining, you have a spring in your step and you’ve just put down the phone on a client who has offered to take you out for the day to play golf.

You have 2 options:
Instant Gratification: You throw caution to the wind, close down your computer, grab your golf clubs and your Nike Air Zoom golfing shoes and leg it out of the company car park before your conscience kicks in. Why the rush; you’ve got until Friday to complete the report?

Delayed Gratification: You thank the client profusely, but point out that you have a deadline to meet and would it be possible to re-schedule the golf for Friday after you’ve handed in the report? Two positive things are likely to come out of this. Firstly, the client will be impressed by your commitment to your deadline. Secondly, you’ll give yourself plenty of time to produce a detailed, concise report for the directors which will probably be ready before it’s needed, leaving you free to play golf later in the week without a potential shadow hanging over your every stroke.

People who take the second option, understand the benefits of delayed gratification, and are more likely to associate hard work with higher rewards.

In the society that we now live in, delayed gratification is more important than ever. We appear to have become a ‘why wait? Have it now’ generation, with the ability to obtain anything from a pair of socks to a brand new car at the click of a button. With credit so readily available, the days of needing to save up for the latest music system are a thing of the past. Unfortunately, along with the disappearance of that distant past, is the pleasure experienced when you finally get to appreciate, that which you’ve worked hard and saved hard for.

So next time an opportunity arises, that at face value seems just too good to pass up, take another look and re-assess the situation. Will the outcome create a short term gain but a bleaker view in the long term? If so, you may want to re-consider your answer.

How well does your team work? Do you feel that you’re listened to? Can you get your point across without being shouted down? Good communication is essential for any relationship to thrive, and for a team to perform as a whole it’s vital. I attended a 2 day community building course in Plymouth many years ago, where both my communication skills, and my patience were tested to their limits. The course was based on the work of M Scott Peck, M.D, a highly respected doctor of psychiatry from the USA. Dr Peck wrote many books, the first and probably most famous being The Road Less Travelled, a wonderful book looking into the characteristics and qualities that make for a fulfilled human being.

The course I attended however was based on another of his novels, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. Although I didn’t attend this course with team building in mind, looking back at what I learnt, the four stages we were taught could be compared to any well run training development program today. The aim of the course was to reach community. We learnt that to get to that point successfully, we needed to work through Pseudo community, Chaos, Emptiness and finally Community

Stage 1 – Pseudo community.

During the course, this was the stage where the members acted in a polite fashion, if a little guarded. People would give away very little of themselves and be very superficial in their line of conversation. This was done to avoid divulging opinions held, in case they upset or angered someone else. This forced relationship can never lead to community as it’s not based on anything that’s real.In a team building course, this stage is known as Forming. This stems from the insecurities that the team members may feel about their role and position within the team. This discomfort only happens in the early stages of the team building and it’s the job of the person guiding the team building process to shorten this period as much as possible.

Stage 2 – Chaos

When pseudo community fails to work, and there is no progression, the members start to vent their mutual disagreements and differences. The group descends into chaos. It may not sound it, but this is a good thing. People realise that they can no longer ignore their differences. Chaos may look counterproductive but it’s the first genuine step towards reaching community. In a team building exercise, this stage is known as Storming. This is where the team members frequently argue and air their frustrations openly.

Stage 3 – Emptiness

This follows the chaos. This is the stage where people learn to clear themselves of any personal factors that are holding up the process of reaching community for the group. Egotism, conceit and self importance are all high on the list of causes that need to be dealt with to progress further. Many people find this process quite difficult but it’s an essential stage. Known as Norming in team building, the members are now at the stage where they are resolving their differences, learning to accept and listen to others and in doing so, clarifying the roles each need to play. Having learnt more about each other in the previous stages, they are now making progress and developing tools to help them work better as a group. The development of the team is becoming more apparent.

Stage 4 – True Community

Having worked their way through pseudo community, chaos and emptiness, the group has finally achieved community. Having gone through the process together they will have developed a level of both compassion and sympathy with one another. There will be a far greater level of understanding of others and an ability to relate to others’ feelings in the group, without questioning motives. This is the penultimate phase of team building, known as Performing. At this stage the team is working as a unified group. Production is high and feelings are positive. The group communicates well, and deals with disagreements in a positive manner without emotional conflict. This is followed by Transforming. This is the final stage, and the icing on the cake. The team has accomplished what it set out to do. It’s likely that the members of the group will have developed a firm bond and potentially experience a sense of loss or relief as the process draws to a close. As a group they will have established trust and a deep sense of connection, and frequently leave the group with a genuine desire to meet again.

As a member of a team, are you not part of a community with the same common interests and goals? If you feel your team could do with a little help with the process of Forming through to Transforming, my advice is to either head straight to that well known online book store and purchase a copy of M.Scott Peck’s The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, or take a look at the Team 360 development tool.

As a 40 year old adult, I’ve discovered a real desire to brush up on some of the learning skills and opportunities that as a child I took for granted and know that I never reached my full potential on.

This epiphany-like moment occurred whilst having struggled, yet again to understand another piece of seemingly impossible maths homework brought home by my 13 year old son. There and then, I made the decision to head back into the learning arena and brush up on my maths. Yes…I’m going back to school. Thankfully the virtual variety, as opposed to the red bricked, imposing building I attended as a child.

So, I completed an on-line assessment, to determine the GCSE level I’m at, 24 years after taking my original O level equivalent. To my absolute delight, I did far better than I had thought I would and, according to my results, should I re-sit my maths GCSE today, I’d gain between an A and C grade. Bring on the certificate!

Feeling on a roll from this recent maths success, and wanting to continue on the path of adult learning that I am now eagerly treading, I decided to pick up where I’d left off musically as a child, by acquiring a beautiful clarinet. I loved playing the clarinet as a 12 year old, however, the constant need to be practicing scales, and a music teacher pushing me to take exams took the wind out of my musical sails and foolishly I gave up playing. 28 years on, my clarinet now takes pride of place in its own stand, with a basket full of music scores of some of my favourite songs, ready to play whenever I feel the urge.

So many of us give up on learning. It’s as though we close our minds to further educating ourselves the minute we leave the school system potentially from the age of 16 onwards. It’s taken me to the ripe age of 40 to be able to find the time to recognise the advantages that further education can bring. The potential benefits are numerous. Promotion and a higher rate of pay are more likely to be offered to those who are up to date with the latest information and technology. It’s all well and good telling your employer that you have an O’level in computer studies, but that doesn’t hold much water if you learnt on a Sinclair Spectrum back in 1986.

The benefits aren’t all financially related either. My levels of self esteem went through the roof, having been told that I’d done really well in the maths test. For me, that has been the catalyst that has given me the impetus to want to continue learning. Reaching for heights that you may think unattainable, and then achieving them can give a huge boost to your confidence.

Rediscovering my desire to learn again has been a real eye opener. Maybe it’s because I’m not being pressurised to achieve, that I have found the drive to want to apply myself and further my learning. So move over Einstein and Beethoven….I’m on a mission.

Trying to get an important point across and feeling like you’re not being listened to can be extremely frustrating. I was having a discussion with a colleague last week and knew fully well that he was already forming a reply before I’d had a chance to get my point across and finish my sentence.

 In that situation, what can make you feel even worse, can be the listener’s apparent lack of attention to what you’re saying, that leaves you thinking that their focus is not on the issue you have about the ridiculously short time frame you feel you’ve been given to hand in that all important project, but whether they should cook meatballs or lasagne for dinner with the beef defrosting at home in the fridge.

 To truly listen to someone takes skill. Life can be chaotic. Multi-tasking is often a necessity, and finding the time to give someone your full attention when they have important issues to discuss, can be extremely difficult. Unfortunately the result of not listening properly in business can lead to potentially costly misunderstandings and mistakes, not to mention the frustration this may cause the person on the receiving end.

 Effective employee engagement is about good communication. A simple but extremely effective communication technique to implement in business is reflective listening. This skill set is an effectual way to communicate, that ensures we hear what is actually being said, and not our interpretation of what we think is being said. In short, reflective listening is paraphrasing what the other person is saying.

 It’s important to note here that you don’t parrot what is said. Parroting involves repeating verbatim what the other person has said.  This can leave them feeling that you’re not truly listening to them and therefore not as engaged as you could be. Paraphrasing however, enables you to understand the point they are trying to make by clarifying it verbally, thereby indicating in your response, that you have heard what they are saying and are therefore fully engaged with them.

Reflective listening is about responding to, rather than leading the other person. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. After all, we all love to feel that we can give some helpful advice to a friend or colleague in need. The objective however is not for the responsive listener to take responsibility for the problem posed, that responsibility lies with the person bringing the issue to light. As the responsive listener, your aim should be to encourage the other person to build on the thoughts and feelings they have, and encourage them through using reflective listening to delve in a little deeper to find their own solution.

I’m not the world’s best listener, but having stumbled upon this helpful communication technique I’m going to make a conscious effort to improve the quality of my listening skills.